We’re listening, and we’re going to make changes to our opinion pages beginning Sunday to give you what you’ve been asking for.

Story Highlights

A silver lining of the nation’s increasing political polarization has been a consistent and clear message we’ve heard from you, our readers, about our opinion pages.

We want to read more about solutions than takedowns of the people and organizations trying to get things done, you’ve told us. We want less party politics and more problem-solving.

We want to hear more from local, regional and state voices who speak to Knoxville, East Tennessee and the Volunteer State than national columnists writing commentary that makes up the bulk of programming on 24-hour cable TV news.

We also know, both from what you’ve told us and from the readership we track online, that most of you just aren’t all that interested in our editorial board opinions except in extraordinary circumstances or on topics that profoundly affect your lives.

We’re listening, and we’re going to make changes to our opinion pages beginning Sunday to give you what you’ve been asking for.

Here are the highlights:

We’re going to devote more space to local letters by consolidating publication to Mondays. That will allow us to feature more local voices sharing their opinions about local issues.

We will prioritize writers from Knoxville, East Tennessee and the state over others, with a particular emphasis on issues that influence your lives and that you can in turn influence yourselves.

We will de-emphasize the traditional “unsigned editorial,” the pieces that represent the collective view of the editorial board, in favor of opinion pieces by experts and policymakers who bring deep knowledge and ability to effect change to the conversations. We won’t abandon the editorial board’s voice, but we’ll reserve it for the most important times and conversations.

We’ll use this new approach to add more pages for local, state and national news coverage by consolidating our opinion content on four days a week — Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays.

A Leon County sheriff's deputy in Florida shoots a family's dog in its own yard while visiting without telling family members to just put him up or on a leash. The cartoonist's homepage, tallahassee.com/opinion Nathan Archer, Tallahassee Democrat

The farm bill, which included stricter work requirements for receiving food stamps, failed May 18, 2018, in the House of Representatives. The cartoonist's homepage, freep.com/opinion/mike-thompson Mike Thompson, Detroit Free Press

I’ll use this opportunity, too, to encourage you to submit your letters (up to 300 words) and op-eds (up to 500 words) to letters@knoxnews.com. Make sure to include your name, address and telephone number for verification (we publish only name and city) and that your views are original. We limit publication to one letter per writer in a 30-day period. Op-eds typically are reserved for experts and policymakers with direct and deep knowledge of a topic.

We’re sure you’re going to see much more solutions-oriented opinion pages with a sharp focus on the issues that matter most to your lives.